Ashtabula County, part of the Western Reserve in northeastern Ohio, drew many early settlers from Connecticut, and many of them took part in the Underground Railroad; by the start of the Civil War, the county had become a leading center of anti-slavery fervor and dissent. The Underground Railroad was a secret network of safe places and routes used to hide and move escaped slaves into the free states and Canada, and as early as 1813 fugitives were guided through the Western Reserve by way of Ashtabula County’s main north-south roads to Lake Erie. Its secret language called safe houses stations, their keepers agents, guides conductors, escorted groups trains, and the escapees freight or passengers, with terminal points such as Ashtabula Harbor and Conneaut Harbor serving as departure points across the lake to Canada. In Austinburg, the First Congregational Church was established in 1801, and the Rev. Giles Hooker Cowles, who came there in 1811, and his abolitionist family helped many slaves escape to freedom. Betsey Mix Cowles became one of the county’s strongest anti-slavery figures, lecturing for immediate abolition, opening her home to fugitive slaves, bringing prominent anti-slavery speakers to Ashtabula County, defending women’s rights, and hiding John Brown Jr. in 1859 while federal agents searched for him after Harpers Ferry. Austinburg was an abolitionist stronghold with numerous local supporters, and Sycamore Hall, built in 1815 by Eliphalet and Sihette Austin, served as an Underground Railroad station with a false floor and secret room used to hide fugitives. Stories from the Austin home tell of Milton Clarke finding refuge there and of Jerry, an escaped slave hidden under Mrs. Austin’s bed while his owner searched the house unsuccessfully before accepting $350 raised locally for Jerry’s freedom. County anti-slavery activity also included societies, public protests, political action by figures such as Joshua Giddings and Benjamin Wade, resistance to slave catchers, aid to fugitives, and continuing opposition to slavery through the 1850s.